Tomoko Kuroki
is the lead protagonist of ''No Matter How I Look At It, It's You Guys Fault I'm Not Popular! ''("Watamote"). Socially inept and often desperate, the series chronicles her various attempts to try to be more popular at her school. Tomoko has a grim outlook on life - so much so that during a daydream, she imagines herself on a motorcycle, only to crash and end up in the hospital. She nearly always has heavy bags under her eyes due to her staying up too late playing games or watching anime. She can also be rather perverted. She is 15 years old at the time of the series' debut and was born towards the end of FebruaryTwitterChapter 36 of the manga, released in late February 2013, has her celebrating her birthday in winter garb of either 1994(According to the manga); on chapter 33, page 3, the current year is shown to be 2010 on a New Year's postcard, 1997(According to the official fanbook), or 1998(According to Episode 4 of the anime), thereby making her a Pisces. Her favorite food is most likely the hamburger from WcDonalds, as she now purchases them more often than before, when she thought they were only for kids and idiots. Her height is about 5'0" or 152cm. She will often imagine dubious situations with boys or lust after her best friend, Yuu Naruse. Tomoko also has a younger brother named Tomoki Kuroki, and a cousin, Kī. Relationships Yū Naruse Tomoko befriended Yū in middle school when Yū joined Tomoko's class. Tomoko offers to eat lunch with her after being told to eat lunch with her friends, believing that she could take advantage of her good will. Yū attempts to add Komi into the group, being another loner. However, she and Tomoko don't get along well, and as she has not been seen in the main series it can be assumed that they have not attempted to remain in contact. At the start of the main series, Tomoko mainly contacts Yū to ask for advice including about what kind of underwear she was wearing at the time. Though as it progresses, Yū asks Tomoko for help, and even notes how mature she feels Tomoko is. During the culture festival, she visits Tomoko's school, where Tomoko attempts to get a hug from her by bringing her into the haunted house (resulting in her annoyance that they were unable to scare her). Kī Tomoko's cousin. Kī respects Tomoko more than anyone else in her family. She looks up to her and refers to her as an older sister which pleases Tomoko greatly. Tomoko lies a great deal to Kī in an attempt to seem more mature, however, this ultimately backfires when Kī finds out when she confronts the guy she claimed to be her boyfriend, only to have her illusion shattered. Since then Tomoko has tried to be nicer to her in an attempt to win her back, even bringing her along to watch her win a card game against younger children, and trying to give her money at new year to which Kī refuses. Hina Nemoto Nemoto was a classmate of Tomoko in her first year. She introduces herself at the start of their second year, surprising Tomoko as she feared no one remembered her from her last class. She found Tomoko's introduction in her first year funny (as Tomoko had intended), and built up the rest of the class's expectations for her introduction. Leading to Tomoko trying, unsuccessfully, to come up with a new introduction. This leads to her embarrassment and the disappointment of the rest of the class (see Kuroki Level). Despite this, Tomoko seems to warm up to her, and later mentions talking to her on occasion. Ogino Tomoko's homeroom teacher. Ogino tries to get Tomoko to make friends within her class, much to Tomoko's annoyance. However, after finding a picture of a penis on Tomoko's phone in class, it is somewhat unknown how she feels about her. but based on how she still tries to help Tomoko make friends during the field trip chapters and how she told Hahaoya that she's diligent and takes school seriously. Hahaoya Kuroki Tomoko's mother starts as one of the few people she is able to talk to. Her mother often gets annoyed by Tomoko, but still does trust her daughter to a limited extent. Whenever she tries to get Tomoko to do housework, Tomoko will complain, and get away with the bare minimum. Despite this she does care about Tomoko, giving Tomoko her allowance early when she sees an invitation to a party, albeit one Tomoko doesn't go to. Her scoldings have always been justified, such as when Tomoko tried to make it look like she had kiss marks using a vacuum cleaner. Tomoki Kuroki Tomoki Kuroki is the younger brother. Tomoko and her brother's relationship is, strained, to say the least. Tomoko often looks to her brother for help, despite being older than him. However, her requests often come off as creepy, such as asking him to show her his penis, causing him to become annoyed and often resulting in him throwing her out of his room. She also tries to use him for her own end, such as pretending to look after him in order to get sick herself. However, they do both care for each other. When Tomoko saw him alone in class, she planned on trying to help him make friends, though it is revealed that she was mistaken. Tomoki often helps out Tomoko, even taking her to the bathroom when she's too scared to go alone as well as taking her by the hand to the infirmary when she had a nosebleed (caused by him) or finding her a male partner for a three legged race (although that was more so he could get out of being her partner for it). Kotomi Komiyama Kotomi is an old classmate from middle school who Tomoko barely remembered until after they reunited in high school. They were on bad terms but after hanging out with Yuu for a bit they both silently decided to attempt to get along. Character Overview Tomoko started off very excited about high school. After all, she'd had over 50 years of dating experience with over 100 boys in Otome games, and couldn't have been more enthralled with the years of popularity her secondary education was bound to bring! However, after going two months without speaking to anyone in her class, Tomoko is baffled by her continuing lack of notoriety and becomes more determined than ever to gain her peers' approval. One of the ways Tomoko plans to rehabilitate herself is through daily talks with her brother, Tomoki Kuroki, who agrees to her unusual requests, begrudgingly. She also frequently spends times with her gradeschool friend, Yū Naruse, whose favorable social status is often coveted by Tomoko. Though she has little to no success at first, she has slowly gained people's respect, and in her second year she managed to make a friend, Nemoto, in her class whom she talks to. She also befriends a member of the culture festival committee, though she has had very little interaction with the latter. It is also apparent that she has become slightly more confident in dealing with other people in social interaction. For example, being able to hand over her home ec. ingredients, something she had been unable to do prior to this event. Appearance Tomoko has a small, pale face and a very delicate and slender body. She has long, messy, black hair that she wears down on her shoulders, often covering her right eye. She has green jade like eyes with visible purple shadows under them. She can mostly be seen wearing her school uniform that consists of a white buttoned up shirt that comes with a collar and a dark red necktie, a pale, light, yellow jacket that comes with light blue buttons, and small skirt the same color as the jacket she wears, and jet black knee length socks with brown tied up shoes. Manga: All Anime: All Memorable quotes *"No, no. Actually I should be super popular among those pedos. Is it really because I'm small?" *"Yeah. You're right. I'll kill myself." *"It's fine, isn't it? I'm your sister." *"If shortening my lifespan by a year would kill these guys, I'd do it..." *"If you're not a worthless god, I'd like to see you try and make me happy...if you can't manage that, at least make everyone as unhappy as me. If you can't, it's fine I guess...but I'll despise you forever." *"I'm getting really turned on..." *"It's fine if the sun wants to start shining brighter now that it's almost spring, but I wish it would take into consideration people like me who are weak against the sun." *"Phew.... My mind is so stuck on dicks I can't concentrate at all..." *"Show me your dick." *"Don't read if you're a bitch." *"Get your ass over here you cockroach!! I'll show you the power of humanity!!" *"I-I figured I'd go take a really messy shit in the bathroom or something." * "My favorite jam is Strawberry Jam!" * "I just had a totally normal conversation with someone! I'm gonna go stop for icecream!" * "You want stain the red suit even redder with virgin blood, huh, Santa?" Trivia * Although never confirmed, some chapters imply she is bisexual. * The dark skin under her eyes is a result of insufficient sleep and anemia and seems to be genetic (as her brother also has lighter ones). * It was never clearly stated why she turned from an average everyday school girl into a gloomy, very pessimistic, insecure girl. Some readers suggested an unspoken bad incident she experienced in the past may have affected her psychology and eventually her body. * It is also very possible her early interest in internet culture (which can be very creative but also mature and violent), led her to believe the real world is filled with judgemental scum. Image gallery References Category:Characters Category:Female